It’s always an exciting time when you commit to a new IT project that promises to change your business for the better. Naturally, the exciting stuff is what comes after the implementation process—a process that can range from easy-as-pie to incredibly complex and stressful, depending on the expertise your company employs.
Macro Systems Blog
Technology has ingrained itself into just about every facet of modern life, especially in the business world where every competitive edge makes a difference. Many small and medium-sized businesses just don’t have the staff on-hand to manage and maintain their technology solutions, instead opting to outsource this critical responsibility to managed service providers (MSPs).
Cost/Benefit is a term you hear a lot. It’s always used in conversations about potential investment and means something. Well, at least it should. One of the places that many people can gain benefits from their investments is by outsourcing some of their responsibilities to an outside vendor. This works especially well with IT management. Listed below is a look at why outsourcing your technology support and management is a good investment.
SMBs need to be able to navigate the complexities of IT, whether it’s with a completely outsourced IT department or an in-house team of technicians. That being said, if you are thinking of technology management in this black-and-white way, you are eliminating the potential for significant benefits via the use of co-managed IT.
Businesses will often go into the process of self-improvement with unrealistic expectations for how much they can significantly improve their functionality. This simply is not true, and sometimes business owners need to realize that real change—the kind that yields real results—takes time. Fortunately, there are some actionable steps you can take to ensure that your business is moving in the right direction.
Having a professional perspective always helps, it’s just that in today’s world of inflated rates for everything, it’s hard to find experts that don’t charge an arm and a leg. IT consulting plays an imperative role in helping businesses gain a better perspective on their technology landscape. Listed below are several ways in which IT consulting can contribute to a more informed and strategic approach to technology within a business.
An organization’s IT strategy can define how it handles its entire operational strategy, which is why it is so critical to carefully consider your organizational approach to IT. Not only does it allow you to align your IT, and its support, to your business’ goals, but it also allows you to consider the circumstances that you operate under and find viable solutions to business problems. That’s not all. Listed below are some of the reasons that businesses should consider customizing their IT strategy to their business initiatives.
Many businesses, regardless of their size, are increasingly turning towards managed services to streamline their operations, limit expenses, and elevate their overall customer value proposition. The utilization of managed services has revolutionized the landscape, not just in terms of cost-saving, but also in facilitating businesses to grow and extract greater value from their IT infrastructure. Listed below is a look into how managed services achieve this dual objective.
Technology is imperative for many reasons, chief among them your business’ continued efficiency and productivity. The problem with technology, though, is that it will never last forever, and you’ll have to replace it sooner or later. Fortunately, you can delay those costs considerably by implementing a proactive technology management plan, effectively keeping the same technology running longer.
Businesses use all kinds of sayings to try to draw in customers. One of the core selling points of managed IT services is that “it pays for itself”. This is more than just marketing. The multiple services that make up managed IT services all help a business save time and money, but when added together, it can really help the bottom line of a business more than most services they can use. In this week’s blog we thought we would go through the core elements of a managed IT services agreement to show how it really does pay for itself.
How does your organization manage its IT? Do you have an in-house team, and how busy are they with all of the hustle and bustle of their everyday duties? Do they have time to address the many challenges and requests made of them? If not, then perhaps you should consider a different model for your IT management. Fortunately, we have just the opportunity for you, and you won’t want to miss out on it.
When you buy into any idea, you must ask yourself, “how much money am I willing to spend?” The same goes for your business’ IT. Naturally, your business isn’t a public television telethon, but we’re going to pretend it is by going through the levels of investment you can make and how it can impact your business.
There are countless moving parts to any successful company, and smaller businesses often have the problem of their employees juggling multiple different tasks and wearing all kinds of different hats in addition to their outlined job duties and responsibilities. You might encounter situations where you don’t know what to do, and it can be overwhelming when so much needs to get done in so little time.
How has your company managed its technology in recent years? Depending on the way you have done so, you could be unnecessarily throwing money down the drain when you could instead be reinvesting it into your business. If you are ready to take your operations to the next level, consider changing your approach to your office’s technology management with managed services.
Every expense that your organization takes on requires consideration. When you are looking to keep your company productive, you need to focus on keeping downtime to a minimum. In order to do that you need to have tools that don’t take a lot of work-time maintenance and have professional perspectives available that can help keep operations running when problems with your business’ technology do happen.
If you want to limit costs, being proactive can go a long way toward this goal. Your organization's technology is one such area where proactive maintenance can allow your business to save countless dollars and hours of downtime. If you haven’t implemented a proactive maintenance platform yet, then you might be putting your business at risk.
It’s not often that something profoundly alters the landscape of business technology management as much as managed services has. When implemented correctly, managed IT services can completely replace the traditional methods of technology management within a business, and it all starts with changing not just your budgeting practices but also your maintenance practices.
When it comes to your business’ IT resources, who’s the boss? Do you have a CIO, or chief information officer, managing your IT decision-making, and do you have someone responsible for managing and maintaining your systems? If you don’t know the answer to either of these questions, then we need to have a conversation about your relationship with technology management.
When you read the articles available on our blog, you may see the phrase “managed services” a lot. That’s because we firmly believe that managed services are the solution to a lot of problems that small and medium-sized businesses have with technology management, maintenance, and acquisition. How can managed services help your business push past its limits and establish itself as a powerhouse in the local market?
Network security is remarkably critical for businesses, whether they are small organizations or large enterprises, regardless of industry or number of clients served. Your business needs to take it seriously, which means that you need to actively monitor your network for signs of intrusion. Listed below is a look at what goes into network monitoring.